Lion Forge Leisure, the Oscar-winning animation and household leisure studio based by David Steward II, son of African-American billionaire David Steward, has secured a $30 million minority funding led by HarbourView Fairness Companions.
The funding will help Lion Forge’s enlargement of its mental property portfolio and franchise pipeline. The Steward household and Polarity, the media holding firm additionally based by Steward II, will retain majority management.
Lion Forge to scale international franchises
The studio has constructed international recognition via initiatives resembling Hair Love, which received the Academy Award for Finest Animated Brief Movie in 2020, and Iyanu, a Yoruba-inspired fantasy sequence airing on Cartoon Community and HBO Max, now renewed for a second season and have movies.
“It is a validating second for our younger firm. The synergy between HarbourView’s funding technique and our franchise-building blueprint will permit us to optimize alternatives on the nexus of leisure, tradition, and content material,” Steward II stated.
HarbourView founder Sherrese Clarke echoed the alignment: “It synchronizes with our imaginative and prescient of how the following technology of media firms can develop — with genuine and socially related content material.”
HarbourView builds diversified media portfolio
Lion Forge additionally maintains a first-look cope with Nickelodeon, creating initiatives resembling Marley & The Household Band, Chicka Chicka Increase Increase, and Iron Dragon. As well as, it’s collaborating with companions together with Penguin Younger Readers, George R.R. Martin, and Insurgent Women to increase its artistic footprint.
For HarbourView, the funding builds on latest strikes within the content material sector, together with an $85 million stake in French AI-powered children’ media group Animaj, a partnership with Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios, and the financing of Usher’s 2024 live performance movie.
Steward household legacy in enterprise and tradition
Since its founding in 2021 HarbourView has amassed $2.67 billion in regulatory belongings below administration and purchased greater than 70 music catalogs comprising 35,000 songs. The rise of Lion Forge reveals how the Steward household is changing into extra vital within the leisure business.
David Steward II launched Polarity in 2018 as a media platform to leverage comics and authentic tales throughout movie and tv. His father, David Steward, is the founding father of World Huge Know-how, a $17 billion IT companies large, and ranks among the many wealthiest African-American billionaires.
By combining HarbourView’s capital with its personal artistic pipeline, Lion Forge goals to scale right into a franchise-driven studio able to competing within the international animation and children’ content material market whereas sustaining its identification as a Black-owned, culturally targeted leisure firm.
